TigerBlog estimates that since Monday morning, he's received more than 500 emails.
Of the 500 emails, most, as usual, were deletable without ever opening them, leaving TB to once again wonder how his email address ends up on so many different lists.
There were two emails that really stuck out.
The first was one of those Linked In invitations.
TB doesn't have a Facebook page, and he didn't create his Linked In page. He does, though, like to accept the Linked In invitations because TB can be, you know, polite.
Anyway, this particular Linked In invitation came from Donn Cabral, Princeton's NCAA champion and Olympic steeplechaser.
TB can't remember too many athletes who have been easier to root for than Cabral, both because of the impressive nature of his skill and his general likeability.
It's an interesting subject, that of likeability in athletes.
Terrell Owens, who is widely considered to be unlikeable, has always made the point that while people think he's a jerk, he's never been arrested, doesn't do drugs, doesn't beat up women.
True, TB always though, but is this how low the bar has been set in contemporary society? Not getting arrested makes you a good person?
In a time when the headlines every day seem to be filled with this athlete or that athlete who was charged with something (none of whom every seem to be held fully accountable), it's easy to get numb to it.
With that backdrop, TB got another email, this one from men's soccer coach Jim Barlow. It was a link to an online soccer publication, and it included this quote from Lionel Messi, who might be the best player in the world right now:
"I am more worried about being a good person than being the best soccer player in the world. When all this is over, what are you left with? ... When I retire, I hope I am remembered for being a decent guy. I like to score goals but I also like to have friends among the people I have played with."
That's quite a statement. In fact, that's about the most refreshing statement that TB has heard from a high-profile athlete in a long time.
Think about it. Here's a guy with it all, money, fame, extraordinary athletic ability.
And what's important to him? Being a good person.
Barlow forwarded TB something a few weeks ago that TB can't remember word-for-word, but it did have something to do with how soccer fans were more loyal to their sport than fans of other sports. TB didn't used to buy into that, but his level of appreciation for international soccer and all of its leagues and championships has skyrocketed in the last few years.
And the World Cup has become his favorite athletic event.
Still, for all that, the soccer championship he is most interested in remains the Ivy League version.
There is a big soccer doubleheader against Brown Saturday on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, beginning at 4 with the women's game and then concluding at 7 when the men take on the Bears.
The Ivy League women's race is in Week 3, one week ahead of the men.
Right now, there are three undefeated women's teams: Princeton, Penn and Columbia at 2-0, followed by 1-1 Harvard and Dartmouth and 0-2 Brown, Yale and Cornell.
This weekend's game is anything but a given, though, as Princeton (6-3-1) vs. Brown (6-3-0) women is a matchup of the two best overall records in the league. Add to that the fact that of the eight league games played so far, seven have been one-goal games, including Princeton's two wins, both by 2-1 scores (over Yale in OT and Dartmouth).
Princeton follows the Brown game with a midweek home game against Lehigh, followed by a trip to Columbia.
As for the men, Princeton looked good in its opener last weekend with a 2-1 OT win over Dartmouth. The Tigers feature Thomas Sanner, who has won four of the five Ivy Rookie of the Week awards.
The first week of the men's season did the women one better - the four league games were decided by a total of three goals, with three one-goal games and a tie.
Brown comes into the game 8-1-1 overall and 1-0-0 in the league, not to mention ranked 19th in the country, one spot behind undefeated (9-0-0) Cornell.
In other words, Princeton could take a huge step in the direction of regaining the league title it won two years ago or putting itself in position for an at-large bid should it not get an automatic bid. Then again, Brown is not the only ranked team Princeton will play in a short span, as the Tigers turn around to play No. 24 Creighton at home Tuesday.
For everything that Princeton Athletics offers its fans, it's really hard to beat a good soccer doubleheader at Roberts Stadium, which will be in its glory on ESPNU for Tuesday night's game, as an aside.
The facility isn't going to get old anytime soon, and it affords a great spot to watch a game. The quality of the play on the field is tremendous, and of course there is no charge for admission.
What could be better?
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Tuesday Afternoon At Bedford
The very nice lady crossed paths with TigerBlog for the first time in Caldwell Field House.
About two minutes later, they ran into each other again, this time on the steps down to C level in Jadwin Gym.
TigerBlog was on his way to play squash, and the nice lady was on her way to the Zanfrini Room, where she and her group were going to eat lunch and kill off about two hours. When they crossed paths the third time, TB joked that if she really wanted something exciting to do in the meantime, she should come watch the squash match.
Which she did. For a few points, anyway. Then TB and his partner invited her to go to the next court and watch Princeton's two most recent men's tennis coaches, Billy Pate and Glen Michibata, play in what TB called "the varsity match."
So the nice lady did. And when she came back, she mentioned that it took her about two seconds to realize that Pate and Michibata were much better players.
When TB's match was over, he walked back to the locker room past the Zanfrini Room, and he ducked his head in to thank her for coming to watch. At that point, the very nice lady offered TB lunch, a good-looking chicken/pasta/salad combination that he might have accepted had he not brought his own lunch.
All in all, this woman whom TB had never before couldn't have been nicer to him. Then, about three hours later, TB rooted against her.
The woman was Missy Meharg, the head coach of the two-time defending NCAA field hockey champion Maryland Terrapins. Meharg and her team were in Princeton to take on the Tigers in a late afternoon game, and the Terps made Jadwin their home for the middle of the day after a walkthrough pregame.
Princeton began the day ranked third to Maryland's fourth, and both moved down one spot when the new rankings were posted in midday. Still, this was clearly a matchup of two of the nation's very best programs.
Unfortunately, the rain lingered in the area longer than the forecast said it would, something that kept the crowd smaller than it otherwise might have been, though there was still a nice-sized, and enthusiastic, turnout.
And the game they saw was a great one.
Princeton scored first, and then Maryland scored the next two to go up 2-1 at the half. The Tigers would draw even on Kathleen Sharkey's rocket with eight minutes gone in the second half, the game-winner came from Sydney Kirby with 20 minutes to play.
Tiger goalie Christina Maida made six saves, several of which were spectacular.
TigerBlog has seen far less field hockey than he has soccer, and he has very little feel for the intricacies of the game.
What was obvious, though, was that Princeton-Maryland had a little more intensity and skill than a regular game.
It had something of a playoff feel to it, even if it was just the second day of October.
It was also obvious that Bedford Field is a great place to watch a game, even if the project isn't completed. Once it is, the facility will be even more impressive.
And the turf? It looks spectacular, and it obviously plays really fast.
The combination of the field and the quality of players on it resulted in a game played at a very fast tempo, and it seemed like both teams were constantly attacking and countering.
Princeton is now 9-1 on the year, with its lone loss a 2-0 decision to No. 1 Syracuse. The drama certainly figures to build as the rest of the season plays out.
Princeton is a big draw in field hockey now because of the presence of its Olympians.
It wasn't until after the game that TB put two and two together and realized that Meharg had been the color commentator for NBC on its Olympic field hockey coverage. He remembered that she came across as a nice person during those telecasts, and certainly nothing happened at Jadwin Gym to make TB think any different.
In fact, she seemed like very easy coach to root for in a field hockey game.
Only TB wasn't doing that yesterday.
About two minutes later, they ran into each other again, this time on the steps down to C level in Jadwin Gym.
TigerBlog was on his way to play squash, and the nice lady was on her way to the Zanfrini Room, where she and her group were going to eat lunch and kill off about two hours. When they crossed paths the third time, TB joked that if she really wanted something exciting to do in the meantime, she should come watch the squash match.
Which she did. For a few points, anyway. Then TB and his partner invited her to go to the next court and watch Princeton's two most recent men's tennis coaches, Billy Pate and Glen Michibata, play in what TB called "the varsity match."
So the nice lady did. And when she came back, she mentioned that it took her about two seconds to realize that Pate and Michibata were much better players.
When TB's match was over, he walked back to the locker room past the Zanfrini Room, and he ducked his head in to thank her for coming to watch. At that point, the very nice lady offered TB lunch, a good-looking chicken/pasta/salad combination that he might have accepted had he not brought his own lunch.
All in all, this woman whom TB had never before couldn't have been nicer to him. Then, about three hours later, TB rooted against her.
The woman was Missy Meharg, the head coach of the two-time defending NCAA field hockey champion Maryland Terrapins. Meharg and her team were in Princeton to take on the Tigers in a late afternoon game, and the Terps made Jadwin their home for the middle of the day after a walkthrough pregame.
Princeton began the day ranked third to Maryland's fourth, and both moved down one spot when the new rankings were posted in midday. Still, this was clearly a matchup of two of the nation's very best programs.
Unfortunately, the rain lingered in the area longer than the forecast said it would, something that kept the crowd smaller than it otherwise might have been, though there was still a nice-sized, and enthusiastic, turnout.
And the game they saw was a great one.
Princeton scored first, and then Maryland scored the next two to go up 2-1 at the half. The Tigers would draw even on Kathleen Sharkey's rocket with eight minutes gone in the second half, the game-winner came from Sydney Kirby with 20 minutes to play.
Tiger goalie Christina Maida made six saves, several of which were spectacular.
TigerBlog has seen far less field hockey than he has soccer, and he has very little feel for the intricacies of the game.
What was obvious, though, was that Princeton-Maryland had a little more intensity and skill than a regular game.
It had something of a playoff feel to it, even if it was just the second day of October.
It was also obvious that Bedford Field is a great place to watch a game, even if the project isn't completed. Once it is, the facility will be even more impressive.
And the turf? It looks spectacular, and it obviously plays really fast.
The combination of the field and the quality of players on it resulted in a game played at a very fast tempo, and it seemed like both teams were constantly attacking and countering.
Princeton is now 9-1 on the year, with its lone loss a 2-0 decision to No. 1 Syracuse. The drama certainly figures to build as the rest of the season plays out.
Princeton is a big draw in field hockey now because of the presence of its Olympians.
It wasn't until after the game that TB put two and two together and realized that Meharg had been the color commentator for NBC on its Olympic field hockey coverage. He remembered that she came across as a nice person during those telecasts, and certainly nothing happened at Jadwin Gym to make TB think any different.
In fact, she seemed like very easy coach to root for in a field hockey game.
Only TB wasn't doing that yesterday.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Well Groomed
Want to hear the funniest thing TigerBlog heard all weekend?
TB's friend's wife was talking about her experience in taking the family dog to the groomer, and it turned into a little more than she expected.
Apparently, she picked up the dog and got back to the car before she realized that she had the wrong one, so she took that one back inside and pointed out the error. When asked which dog was hers, she motioned to one who was still being groomed, and she was told it would be another 20 minutes.
So 20 minutes later, there she was, back in the car with the dog, on her way home. When she got the dog inside the house, her family pointed out that this, again, was the wrong dog, something that she admitted she should have been able to figure out given the huge disparity in tail size between her pet and the one she now had at her house.
It was at this point that TB asked her how long she's had her dog, wondering if perhaps they'd just gotten him, but, no, she said its been two years.
So now she had to load up the second dog and take him back to the shop, which she did, and she finally took the correct dog home with her.
When she got back to the house with the right dog, her oldest son said to her youngest son: "be careful next time she takes you for a haircut."
Now that's funny stuff.
TB can't really figure out how it is that the two original dogs went with her willingly, the first to the car and the second to the house. Even if the human didn't know she had the wrong dog, shouldn't the dogs have known they didn't have the right human?
TB heard that story while at fall lacrosse.
Between TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog, there was about 10 hours worth of athletic events this past Saturday and Sunday alone. Or is that "were" about 10 hours worth of athletic events?
TBJ limited his to lacrosse. MTB had field hockey, lacrosse and even basketball.
Overscheduling of kids is a problem, and having too many athletic events is also a problem. Young bodies need time to recover from strenuous activity, and there's also the risk of achieving some level of mental burnout from playing too much at an early age.
TB used to worry about that with TBJ and lacrosse, and yet he'd play 365 days a year if he could. Lacrosse, though, is the only sport he plays now that he's in high school, which makes him part of what TB assumes is a larger piece of the pie - high school athletes who specialize in only one sport and play it year-round. In his case, he essentially bailed on playing anything else competitively long before he got to high school.
MTB is still in middle school, and she is more of a field hockey/lacrosse kid than basketball, but she still likes all three.
And, whenever TB starts to think that it's too much, he thinks that it's better than playing video games, texting and being on Facebook.
MTB plays field hockey for the school team and on a club team, which means she goes from playing during the week on grass fields where the ball bounces all over the place to playing on the weekends on Princeton's Bedford Field, which is pristine, brand-new artificial turf - well-groomed, one might say.
It's like watching two different sports. The ball is constantly bouncing on the grass, and so many scoring opportunities are lost because ball hops over stick.
TB prides himself on knowing the rules of field hockey, which not too many non-field hockey people know. He learned them from Beth Bozman, Princeton's former coach, back when he used to cover field hockey games on Gulick Field.
Back then, Princeton played on a regular grass field, one that was well-groomed and all, but grass nonetheless. Gulick Field, for those who don't remember, was next to Lourie-Love Field, the old soccer field.
Today, Plummer Field, the FieldTurf practice field, sits where Gulick used to.
As for the new home of Tiger field hockey, it hosts a huge game between the third-ranked Tigers and No. 4 Maryland. The game starts at 4 this afternoon, because the lights on Bedford Field won't be installed until the next phase of the Class of 1952 Stadium construction project, which means they won't be ready until next year.
Maryland is 8-2 on the year, with losses to No. 7 Virginia and No. 8 Old Dominion. Princeton is 8-1, with its only loss to No. 1 Syracuse. North Carolina is ranked second.
Princeton is 3-0 in the Ivy League and has outscored its three league opponents by a combined 20-1, including back-to-back 8-0 wins over Yale and Columbia.
Princeton's eye is on the biggest prize in the sport, and that comes next month in the NCAA tournament. Between now and then, the Tigers have the rest of the Ivy schedule and non-league games against, among others, Virginia and No. 5 UConn.
TB is a huge fan of weekday afternoon games.
Today's should be a pretty good one.
TB's friend's wife was talking about her experience in taking the family dog to the groomer, and it turned into a little more than she expected.
Apparently, she picked up the dog and got back to the car before she realized that she had the wrong one, so she took that one back inside and pointed out the error. When asked which dog was hers, she motioned to one who was still being groomed, and she was told it would be another 20 minutes.
So 20 minutes later, there she was, back in the car with the dog, on her way home. When she got the dog inside the house, her family pointed out that this, again, was the wrong dog, something that she admitted she should have been able to figure out given the huge disparity in tail size between her pet and the one she now had at her house.
It was at this point that TB asked her how long she's had her dog, wondering if perhaps they'd just gotten him, but, no, she said its been two years.
So now she had to load up the second dog and take him back to the shop, which she did, and she finally took the correct dog home with her.
When she got back to the house with the right dog, her oldest son said to her youngest son: "be careful next time she takes you for a haircut."
Now that's funny stuff.
TB can't really figure out how it is that the two original dogs went with her willingly, the first to the car and the second to the house. Even if the human didn't know she had the wrong dog, shouldn't the dogs have known they didn't have the right human?
TB heard that story while at fall lacrosse.
Between TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog, there was about 10 hours worth of athletic events this past Saturday and Sunday alone. Or is that "were" about 10 hours worth of athletic events?
TBJ limited his to lacrosse. MTB had field hockey, lacrosse and even basketball.
Overscheduling of kids is a problem, and having too many athletic events is also a problem. Young bodies need time to recover from strenuous activity, and there's also the risk of achieving some level of mental burnout from playing too much at an early age.
TB used to worry about that with TBJ and lacrosse, and yet he'd play 365 days a year if he could. Lacrosse, though, is the only sport he plays now that he's in high school, which makes him part of what TB assumes is a larger piece of the pie - high school athletes who specialize in only one sport and play it year-round. In his case, he essentially bailed on playing anything else competitively long before he got to high school.
MTB is still in middle school, and she is more of a field hockey/lacrosse kid than basketball, but she still likes all three.
And, whenever TB starts to think that it's too much, he thinks that it's better than playing video games, texting and being on Facebook.
MTB plays field hockey for the school team and on a club team, which means she goes from playing during the week on grass fields where the ball bounces all over the place to playing on the weekends on Princeton's Bedford Field, which is pristine, brand-new artificial turf - well-groomed, one might say.
It's like watching two different sports. The ball is constantly bouncing on the grass, and so many scoring opportunities are lost because ball hops over stick.
TB prides himself on knowing the rules of field hockey, which not too many non-field hockey people know. He learned them from Beth Bozman, Princeton's former coach, back when he used to cover field hockey games on Gulick Field.
Back then, Princeton played on a regular grass field, one that was well-groomed and all, but grass nonetheless. Gulick Field, for those who don't remember, was next to Lourie-Love Field, the old soccer field.
Today, Plummer Field, the FieldTurf practice field, sits where Gulick used to.
As for the new home of Tiger field hockey, it hosts a huge game between the third-ranked Tigers and No. 4 Maryland. The game starts at 4 this afternoon, because the lights on Bedford Field won't be installed until the next phase of the Class of 1952 Stadium construction project, which means they won't be ready until next year.
Maryland is 8-2 on the year, with losses to No. 7 Virginia and No. 8 Old Dominion. Princeton is 8-1, with its only loss to No. 1 Syracuse. North Carolina is ranked second.
Princeton is 3-0 in the Ivy League and has outscored its three league opponents by a combined 20-1, including back-to-back 8-0 wins over Yale and Columbia.
Princeton's eye is on the biggest prize in the sport, and that comes next month in the NCAA tournament. Between now and then, the Tigers have the rest of the Ivy schedule and non-league games against, among others, Virginia and No. 5 UConn.
TB is a huge fan of weekday afternoon games.
Today's should be a pretty good one.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Talking Football
Here's TigerBlog's one-word review of the first episode of Season 2 of "Homeland," which aired last night:
Wow.
If you don't have Showtime, stop what you're doing and order it. If you have to skip lunch a few times a month to afford it, too bad.
That's how good "Homeland" is. Season 1 was insane. Season 2's first episode had no letdown, and the coming attractions made TB want to immediately watch every other episode on demand, just like he did for Season 1, when he watched 12 episodes in three days.
And now we can talk about football.
Before we get to Princeton football, did you see the quarterback stats from the West Virginia-Baylor game? Baylor's Nick Florence went 29 for 47 for 581 yards and five touchdowns - and he had by far the worse game of the two QBs.
West Virginia's Geno Smith was 45 for 51 for 656 yards and eight touchdowns. That's a lot of, well, everything, except incompletions. Smith's season numbers, by the way, are 141 for 169 for 1,728 yards, 20 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Special bonus stats from the game: WVU's Stedman Bailey caught 13 passes for 303 yards and five touchdowns, and the teams combined for 1,507 yards of offense.
West Virginia won the game 70-63, which looks like a basketball score, not a football score. TB's theory is that the teams got together last week and decided that they'd play no defense at all in hopes of getting an otherwise nothing game to become national news.
If they did, it worked really, really well.
Then there was Princeton sprint football.
Before Princeton's game at Cornell Friday, TB checked the scores for Franklin Pierce, the first-year program. As it turned out, the Ravens had played one game, a 26-21 loss to Cornell, so TB figured that there'd be something to be learned by the final score of the game Friday night, which was 22-15 Cornell.
Do what you will with those scores. And this one: Penn 24, Franklin Pierce 20. Princeton hosts Post this Friday and then Franklin Pierce a week from Friday.
In the quarter-century that TB has been involved with Princeton Athletics, he's never really figured out the right segue for going from talking about the sprint team to the "other" football team.
Are they the heavyweights? The real team? Just the football team?
It makes for a difficult transition.
Anyway, the football team defeated Columbia 33-6 Saturday afternoon in New York City in a game that the Tigers desperately needed.
It was a performance that gave Princeton exactly what it needed, and that was the ability to look at the result on the field and see progress, not just be told "hey, you're getting better."
Were you to be cynical, you could point out that the 2011 Tigers were 1-2 after three games, with losses to two Patriot League schools and a win over Columbia, and then went 0-7 the rest of the way.
While that's true, the 2012 Tigers are so much better than the 2011 Tigers, and the numbers back it up.
Princeton lost to Lehigh by 12 and Bucknell by 25 and then beat Columbia by three a year ago.
This year, Princeton lost to Lehigh by three and to Georgetown by one and then beat Columbia by 27.
Last year, Princeton was -34 in point differential in those games. This year, Princeton is +23.
That's a 57-point shift.
So now what? Where are the Tigers with seven games to go?
The goal for this year is to establish that the team is on the way back, that it is competitive. Seven more games like Lehigh and Georgetown would accomplish that, but not in a good way.
The high-end goal should be to get to .500 for the year. Winning two games over two years and then more than doubling that in the third year isn't an easy thing to do, though.
Remember, Princeton is doing this without Chuck Dibilio, the player that the rebuilding effort was supposed to be built around, the one who is out this year after his stroke.
Up next for Princeton is a game at Lafayette, whom Princeton defeated two years ago and didn't play last year. The Leopards are much-improved this year, and it should be a tight game Saturday night in Easton.
After that, it's the run of six straight league games.
After Week 2 two years ago, Princeton was 1-1 with a not-too-shabby loss to Lehigh and an OT win over Lafayette.
After Week 3 last year, Princeton was 1-2 after an Ivy-opening win over Columbia.
Both years ended 1-9.
Now Princeton is 1-2 again.
To TB, this year feels different.
Wow.
If you don't have Showtime, stop what you're doing and order it. If you have to skip lunch a few times a month to afford it, too bad.
That's how good "Homeland" is. Season 1 was insane. Season 2's first episode had no letdown, and the coming attractions made TB want to immediately watch every other episode on demand, just like he did for Season 1, when he watched 12 episodes in three days.
And now we can talk about football.
Before we get to Princeton football, did you see the quarterback stats from the West Virginia-Baylor game? Baylor's Nick Florence went 29 for 47 for 581 yards and five touchdowns - and he had by far the worse game of the two QBs.
West Virginia's Geno Smith was 45 for 51 for 656 yards and eight touchdowns. That's a lot of, well, everything, except incompletions. Smith's season numbers, by the way, are 141 for 169 for 1,728 yards, 20 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Special bonus stats from the game: WVU's Stedman Bailey caught 13 passes for 303 yards and five touchdowns, and the teams combined for 1,507 yards of offense.
West Virginia won the game 70-63, which looks like a basketball score, not a football score. TB's theory is that the teams got together last week and decided that they'd play no defense at all in hopes of getting an otherwise nothing game to become national news.
If they did, it worked really, really well.
Then there was Princeton sprint football.
Before Princeton's game at Cornell Friday, TB checked the scores for Franklin Pierce, the first-year program. As it turned out, the Ravens had played one game, a 26-21 loss to Cornell, so TB figured that there'd be something to be learned by the final score of the game Friday night, which was 22-15 Cornell.
Do what you will with those scores. And this one: Penn 24, Franklin Pierce 20. Princeton hosts Post this Friday and then Franklin Pierce a week from Friday.
In the quarter-century that TB has been involved with Princeton Athletics, he's never really figured out the right segue for going from talking about the sprint team to the "other" football team.
Are they the heavyweights? The real team? Just the football team?
It makes for a difficult transition.
Anyway, the football team defeated Columbia 33-6 Saturday afternoon in New York City in a game that the Tigers desperately needed.
It was a performance that gave Princeton exactly what it needed, and that was the ability to look at the result on the field and see progress, not just be told "hey, you're getting better."
Were you to be cynical, you could point out that the 2011 Tigers were 1-2 after three games, with losses to two Patriot League schools and a win over Columbia, and then went 0-7 the rest of the way.
While that's true, the 2012 Tigers are so much better than the 2011 Tigers, and the numbers back it up.
Princeton lost to Lehigh by 12 and Bucknell by 25 and then beat Columbia by three a year ago.
This year, Princeton lost to Lehigh by three and to Georgetown by one and then beat Columbia by 27.
Last year, Princeton was -34 in point differential in those games. This year, Princeton is +23.
That's a 57-point shift.
So now what? Where are the Tigers with seven games to go?
The goal for this year is to establish that the team is on the way back, that it is competitive. Seven more games like Lehigh and Georgetown would accomplish that, but not in a good way.
The high-end goal should be to get to .500 for the year. Winning two games over two years and then more than doubling that in the third year isn't an easy thing to do, though.
Remember, Princeton is doing this without Chuck Dibilio, the player that the rebuilding effort was supposed to be built around, the one who is out this year after his stroke.
Up next for Princeton is a game at Lafayette, whom Princeton defeated two years ago and didn't play last year. The Leopards are much-improved this year, and it should be a tight game Saturday night in Easton.
After that, it's the run of six straight league games.
After Week 2 two years ago, Princeton was 1-1 with a not-too-shabby loss to Lehigh and an OT win over Lafayette.
After Week 3 last year, Princeton was 1-2 after an Ivy-opening win over Columbia.
Both years ended 1-9.
Now Princeton is 1-2 again.
To TB, this year feels different.
Friday, September 28, 2012
103 Straight
The Ryder Cup starts today outside of Chicago. Apparently, it's Craig Sachson's favorite sporting event.
Sachson told TigerBlog this yesterday as they warmed up for squash. He loves the Ryder Cup.
For those who don't know, the Ryder Cup is a golf competition between a team of golfers from the U.S. and a team representing Europe. It is held every two years.
Sachson talked about the pressure on each player, the fact that they're not getting money but instead are representing a team for one of the rare times in the sport, the reaction of the normally mellow golf crowds.
TB prefers the World Cup to the Ryder Cup. And the NCAA men's lacrosse championships and the Super Bowl (in that order, unless the Giants are winning the Super Bowl, as they have two of the last four years). And the Olympics. And probably a few others.
The pregame squash talk turned to another interesting fact about Sachson. In his role as football contact for Princeton Athletic Communications, Sachson will be attending his 103rd consecutive football game tomorrow, when Princeton opens its Ivy season at Columbia.
Armed with this news, TB tried to figure out what his longest consecutive streak of attending Princeton football games was.
TB was the football contact before Sachson, and he spent eight years in that role. Prior to that, he covered the team at the newspaper. Since Sachson's arrival, TB has been on the radio and of late the PA announcer for the games.
And for all that, he thinks his longest streak is 28 straight games. Basketball, it seemed, often got in the way of the Princeton-Dartmouth (and then sometimes Princeton-Yale) football games.
Still, all told, TB still has he edge on Sachson in total number of Princeton football games. If he had to guess, TB would say he's seen between 150 and 170.
His current streak of consecutive games stands at two, as in the two played this year. It'll go back to zero tomorrow, as he won't be making the trip to New York City.
The Princeton team that goes to Columbia does so with an 0-2 record, but the results are still encouraging.
Princeton lost 17-14 at Lehigh in what was its first game and Lehigh's third - and the Mountain Hawks have one of the top programs in Division I-AA. Princeton then fell at home last week to Georgetown 21-20 on a field goal with 14 seconds to play.
So are all 0-2 starts created equal?
Last year Princeton was outscored 68-31 in its first two games (Lehigh/Bucknell) and then defeated Columbia 24-21 to open the Ivy season.
The Lions are 1-1 on the year, with a win over Marist and a loss to Fordham. Like the Tigers, Columbia very much wants to be 1-0 in the league come tomorrow night.
The interesting thing about the early season for TB is that there's no way to guess what will happen next. TB has the sense the Tigers are much-improved, but as he has been saying, it's important that wins follow that.
Besides, after the Columbia game, there is one at a much-improved Lafayette and then the sprint of six Ivy games in six weeks.
Whatever happens, it's going to happen quickly.
When Sachson gets to 110 straight, what will Princeton's record be for the year?
It's possible that tomorrow's game will be a huge piece of answering that question.
Sachson told TigerBlog this yesterday as they warmed up for squash. He loves the Ryder Cup.
For those who don't know, the Ryder Cup is a golf competition between a team of golfers from the U.S. and a team representing Europe. It is held every two years.
Sachson talked about the pressure on each player, the fact that they're not getting money but instead are representing a team for one of the rare times in the sport, the reaction of the normally mellow golf crowds.
TB prefers the World Cup to the Ryder Cup. And the NCAA men's lacrosse championships and the Super Bowl (in that order, unless the Giants are winning the Super Bowl, as they have two of the last four years). And the Olympics. And probably a few others.
The pregame squash talk turned to another interesting fact about Sachson. In his role as football contact for Princeton Athletic Communications, Sachson will be attending his 103rd consecutive football game tomorrow, when Princeton opens its Ivy season at Columbia.
Armed with this news, TB tried to figure out what his longest consecutive streak of attending Princeton football games was.
TB was the football contact before Sachson, and he spent eight years in that role. Prior to that, he covered the team at the newspaper. Since Sachson's arrival, TB has been on the radio and of late the PA announcer for the games.
And for all that, he thinks his longest streak is 28 straight games. Basketball, it seemed, often got in the way of the Princeton-Dartmouth (and then sometimes Princeton-Yale) football games.
Still, all told, TB still has he edge on Sachson in total number of Princeton football games. If he had to guess, TB would say he's seen between 150 and 170.
His current streak of consecutive games stands at two, as in the two played this year. It'll go back to zero tomorrow, as he won't be making the trip to New York City.
The Princeton team that goes to Columbia does so with an 0-2 record, but the results are still encouraging.
Princeton lost 17-14 at Lehigh in what was its first game and Lehigh's third - and the Mountain Hawks have one of the top programs in Division I-AA. Princeton then fell at home last week to Georgetown 21-20 on a field goal with 14 seconds to play.
So are all 0-2 starts created equal?
Last year Princeton was outscored 68-31 in its first two games (Lehigh/Bucknell) and then defeated Columbia 24-21 to open the Ivy season.
The Lions are 1-1 on the year, with a win over Marist and a loss to Fordham. Like the Tigers, Columbia very much wants to be 1-0 in the league come tomorrow night.
The interesting thing about the early season for TB is that there's no way to guess what will happen next. TB has the sense the Tigers are much-improved, but as he has been saying, it's important that wins follow that.
Besides, after the Columbia game, there is one at a much-improved Lafayette and then the sprint of six Ivy games in six weeks.
Whatever happens, it's going to happen quickly.
When Sachson gets to 110 straight, what will Princeton's record be for the year?
It's possible that tomorrow's game will be a huge piece of answering that question.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
The Date Night Variable
The big news for today is that the season premiere of "The Big Bang Theory" comes up at 8 on CBS.
Or you can DVR it or watch it on demand or something like that, or even DVR it and start it at 8:07 so you don't have to watch any of the commercials, as viewing possibilities have changed radically since TigerBlog first began watching TV on a black-and-white set with a dial that had to be turned with somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 watchable channels.
A year ago, TB had never watched one episode of "The Big Bang Theory." In the last few months, he has seen every one, most of them more than once. Who says TB doesn't spend his time wisely?
TB watched the trailer for Episode 1 of the new season, which starts with Howard in outer space. It is entitled "The Date Night Variable," so presumably Howard does not play a huge role.
Of course, the excitement for the new "The Big Bang Theory" season is nothing compared to what figures to be the highlight of the weekend, the premiere Sunday night of Season 2 of "Homeland."
How much is TB looking forward to that one? It airs from 10-11 Sunday night, and there is zero chance that TB will flip away even for one second to get an update on the Giants-Eagles game, going on at the same time.
An average episode of "The Big Bang Theory" last year drew around 13 million viewers. The last episode of "Homeland" drew 1.7 million. TB is fascinated by what those numbers will be this time around.
Between now and the premiere of "Homeland," there are 23 competitions involving Princeton teams, according to the all-sports schedule.
Of those 23, only two are at home, but they're well worth attending.
Princeton hosts Dartmouth in a soccer doubleheader Saturday, beginning at 2 with the women's game and then concluding at 5 with the men's game. It is the first weekend of league games for the men and the second for the women.
If you think that Ivy women's soccer is pretty tightly bunched, you'd be right.
Last weekend's first four games were all decided by one goal, with two 2-1 games and two 1-0 games. Princeton was on the winning end of its game, knocking off Yale 2-1 in overtime.
Dartmouth defeated Brown by a 2-1 score last weekend as well. Penn and Columbia also won.
Of the eight league teams, seven are at .500 or better overall. It's very unlikely that the league champ will be undefeated, so getting to 2-0 would be a great first step.
Princeton is led by Jen Hoy (whom you can hear on this week's TigerCast) and her 11 goals in nine games. She leads the Ivy League and actually has more than twice as many goals as any other player.
On the men's side, Princeton is 4-3, which makes the Tigers one of three teams over .500 heading into the league. The other two? Cornell at 8-0-0 and Brown at 7-1-0.
Ivy League men's soccer is wildly competitive. The Tigers, winners of their last three, went 7-0-0 in the league two years ago and then struggled last year, showing that the margin of error is slim on the men's side as well.
The men's team features Thomas Sanner, who has won the Ivy Rookie of the Week award three of the four weeks it's been awarded.
Dartmouth comes into the game at 3-4 overall, but everyone is now 0-0 in the league.
The soccer doubleheader on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium is your only opportunity to see Princeton teams at home this weekend.
And there you have it.
"The Big Bang Theory" tonight.
Soccer Saturday.
"Homeland" Sunday night.
You're on your own for tomorrow.
Or you can DVR it or watch it on demand or something like that, or even DVR it and start it at 8:07 so you don't have to watch any of the commercials, as viewing possibilities have changed radically since TigerBlog first began watching TV on a black-and-white set with a dial that had to be turned with somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 watchable channels.
A year ago, TB had never watched one episode of "The Big Bang Theory." In the last few months, he has seen every one, most of them more than once. Who says TB doesn't spend his time wisely?
TB watched the trailer for Episode 1 of the new season, which starts with Howard in outer space. It is entitled "The Date Night Variable," so presumably Howard does not play a huge role.
Of course, the excitement for the new "The Big Bang Theory" season is nothing compared to what figures to be the highlight of the weekend, the premiere Sunday night of Season 2 of "Homeland."
How much is TB looking forward to that one? It airs from 10-11 Sunday night, and there is zero chance that TB will flip away even for one second to get an update on the Giants-Eagles game, going on at the same time.
An average episode of "The Big Bang Theory" last year drew around 13 million viewers. The last episode of "Homeland" drew 1.7 million. TB is fascinated by what those numbers will be this time around.
Between now and the premiere of "Homeland," there are 23 competitions involving Princeton teams, according to the all-sports schedule.
Of those 23, only two are at home, but they're well worth attending.
Princeton hosts Dartmouth in a soccer doubleheader Saturday, beginning at 2 with the women's game and then concluding at 5 with the men's game. It is the first weekend of league games for the men and the second for the women.
If you think that Ivy women's soccer is pretty tightly bunched, you'd be right.
Last weekend's first four games were all decided by one goal, with two 2-1 games and two 1-0 games. Princeton was on the winning end of its game, knocking off Yale 2-1 in overtime.
Dartmouth defeated Brown by a 2-1 score last weekend as well. Penn and Columbia also won.
Of the eight league teams, seven are at .500 or better overall. It's very unlikely that the league champ will be undefeated, so getting to 2-0 would be a great first step.
Princeton is led by Jen Hoy (whom you can hear on this week's TigerCast) and her 11 goals in nine games. She leads the Ivy League and actually has more than twice as many goals as any other player.
On the men's side, Princeton is 4-3, which makes the Tigers one of three teams over .500 heading into the league. The other two? Cornell at 8-0-0 and Brown at 7-1-0.
Ivy League men's soccer is wildly competitive. The Tigers, winners of their last three, went 7-0-0 in the league two years ago and then struggled last year, showing that the margin of error is slim on the men's side as well.
The men's team features Thomas Sanner, who has won the Ivy Rookie of the Week award three of the four weeks it's been awarded.
Dartmouth comes into the game at 3-4 overall, but everyone is now 0-0 in the league.
The soccer doubleheader on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium is your only opportunity to see Princeton teams at home this weekend.
And there you have it.
"The Big Bang Theory" tonight.
Soccer Saturday.
"Homeland" Sunday night.
You're on your own for tomorrow.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
A Day To Atone
TigerBlog's people have two holidays that really mess with his eating habits.
The first is Passover, the eight days that celebrate the Israelites' exodus from enslavement in Egypt, led ably by none other than Moses.
For each of those eight days, TB's people are not allowed - well, not supposed - to eat anything leavened, which essentially eliminates bread, pasta and basically everything else most people eat every day.
The other is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which just happens to be today.
On Yom Kippur, Jews are to fast, from sundown of one day (yesterday) to sundown of the next (today). No food. No liquids. Nothing. For 24 hours.
TigerBlog has spent much of his life mulling over the question of which is more challenging, going eight days minus so many huge staples of his diet is tougher or one full night and day without eating anything.
Yom Kippur is the most solemn day of the Jewish year, a day of quiet reflection and prayer to atone for one's sins of the past year.
It is the end of the Jewish High Holy Days, which began eight days ago with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.
In Jewish culture, the High Holy Days never come on time. They're either early or late, as in "the holidays came really early this year," which is said at every family celebration as a way of suggesting that the hostess was caught completely off guard, what with the end of the summer and all, and therefore couldn't create a proper meal for the occasion. This is usually followed by a general agreement that "we should only be together on wonderful occasions."
For children, the goal on Yom Kippur is always to go the entire 24 hours without eating, though it's rarely achieved.
The tendency is to overeat at dinner before sundown when Yom Kippur begins, but this doesn't do anything to sustain someone the entire next day.
TB's schools were always closed on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and he never went to classes in college on the holidays. He's almost always taken off from work, except at some point when he began to attend Princeton's games should the holiday fall on a weekend.
This put him in a different place than Sandy Koufax, who famously did not pitch in Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur.
TB's first Yom Kippur game was a football game at Brown back in the 1990s.
He decided to make the trip because he figured that leaving at 6 am, driving to Providence, working at the game and then driving some of the way back - all without eating - would be a tougher challenge than sleeping later and not being as busy.
Brown Stadium is not located on campus, set instead at the end of a residential neighborhood about a mile away with a temple across the street from the parking lots.
TB decided to go to the services being held at the temple, and he went in and found three players - two from Princeton and one from Brown - at the services as well. As he recalls, the Brown player was in his uniform.
The 2010 Princeton football season opened on Yom Kippur with a game at Lehigh, and TB did the radio for that one. About five feet from his booth was the pregame media food, which looked great from TB's hungry standpoint.
As for that Brown game, TB made the trip with Princeton's radio team of Tom McCarthy, now the Phillies' TV play-by-play man, and Walter Perez, now a reporter on Channel 6 TV in Philadelphia. The two of them spent the entire trip eating, and when not eating, talking about eating. As TB remembers it, they both got really good bacon and egg sandwiches at a bagel place in the morning.
That particular Yom Kippur, TB broke his fast at a Wendy's off I-95 in Rhode Island.
Anyway, TB is talking today off, except for a few reflections on the holiest day of the year.
He'll be back in the office tomorrow morning, well fed and fully atoned.
The first is Passover, the eight days that celebrate the Israelites' exodus from enslavement in Egypt, led ably by none other than Moses.
For each of those eight days, TB's people are not allowed - well, not supposed - to eat anything leavened, which essentially eliminates bread, pasta and basically everything else most people eat every day.
The other is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which just happens to be today.
On Yom Kippur, Jews are to fast, from sundown of one day (yesterday) to sundown of the next (today). No food. No liquids. Nothing. For 24 hours.
TigerBlog has spent much of his life mulling over the question of which is more challenging, going eight days minus so many huge staples of his diet is tougher or one full night and day without eating anything.
Yom Kippur is the most solemn day of the Jewish year, a day of quiet reflection and prayer to atone for one's sins of the past year.
It is the end of the Jewish High Holy Days, which began eight days ago with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.
In Jewish culture, the High Holy Days never come on time. They're either early or late, as in "the holidays came really early this year," which is said at every family celebration as a way of suggesting that the hostess was caught completely off guard, what with the end of the summer and all, and therefore couldn't create a proper meal for the occasion. This is usually followed by a general agreement that "we should only be together on wonderful occasions."
For children, the goal on Yom Kippur is always to go the entire 24 hours without eating, though it's rarely achieved.
The tendency is to overeat at dinner before sundown when Yom Kippur begins, but this doesn't do anything to sustain someone the entire next day.
TB's schools were always closed on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and he never went to classes in college on the holidays. He's almost always taken off from work, except at some point when he began to attend Princeton's games should the holiday fall on a weekend.
This put him in a different place than Sandy Koufax, who famously did not pitch in Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur.
TB's first Yom Kippur game was a football game at Brown back in the 1990s.
He decided to make the trip because he figured that leaving at 6 am, driving to Providence, working at the game and then driving some of the way back - all without eating - would be a tougher challenge than sleeping later and not being as busy.
Brown Stadium is not located on campus, set instead at the end of a residential neighborhood about a mile away with a temple across the street from the parking lots.
TB decided to go to the services being held at the temple, and he went in and found three players - two from Princeton and one from Brown - at the services as well. As he recalls, the Brown player was in his uniform.
The 2010 Princeton football season opened on Yom Kippur with a game at Lehigh, and TB did the radio for that one. About five feet from his booth was the pregame media food, which looked great from TB's hungry standpoint.
As for that Brown game, TB made the trip with Princeton's radio team of Tom McCarthy, now the Phillies' TV play-by-play man, and Walter Perez, now a reporter on Channel 6 TV in Philadelphia. The two of them spent the entire trip eating, and when not eating, talking about eating. As TB remembers it, they both got really good bacon and egg sandwiches at a bagel place in the morning.
That particular Yom Kippur, TB broke his fast at a Wendy's off I-95 in Rhode Island.
Anyway, TB is talking today off, except for a few reflections on the holiest day of the year.
He'll be back in the office tomorrow morning, well fed and fully atoned.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Good Call
If you're an NFL fan like TigerBlog, then you remember the good old days, back when every coach, player and commentator praised the officials after every game.
Remember those days? Every call was right. There was never any controversy about anything, whether it be a judgement call, the administration of the game, none of it.
Everyone lived in blissful happiness, knowing full well that no matter what, the game would never be decided by an officials' error, since they didn't make any.
TigerBlog gets the whole ref controversy. It's easy to blame the replacements.
And now everyone is looking for it on every play in every situation everywhere.
TB's theory is that if the real refs came back but nobody said they were the real refs, everyone would still say all the same things about them as if they were the replacements.
Take last night's game between the Packers and Seahawks. The last play of the game might not have been a great call or even the right call, but it was hardly the worst call of all time.
Offensive pass interference is never called in that situation. And Golden Tate had a lot of the ball and never let go of it, even if the Packers' M.D. Jennings had more of it.
Did that call give the Packers the loss? Hardly.
Maybe if Aaron Rodgers threw for more than 223 yards. Or, to all those offensive linemen who couldn't wait to tweet, maybe eight first-half sacks were part of the problem.
It's not possible for the replacement refs to come in and be exactly as good as the regular ones, simply because they don't have the experience of officiating games at that speed with players that size with that much scrutiny. It takes more than three weeks of regular season games to make that happen.
But are they as horrific as they're being made out to be? No, they're not.
The uproar over last night's game is predictable, and it does deflect attention away from the fact that in a 60-minute game, the powerful Green Bay offense rolled up 268 yards of offense while the defense forced exactly zero turnovers against a rookie quarterback in his third game.
Oh, and for the New England-Baltimore game, how would real refs have made anything different on the game-winning field goal, which, by the way, was 1) good and 2) not reviewable.
Officials are such an easy target.
The ones who officiate college men's lacrosse have endured a great deal of screaming and yelling and ranting and anything else coaches could come up with, and it's not going to get any easier for them this coming year.
The new rules in men's lacrosse that were recommended last month by the rules committee and then tweaked and finally formally adopted this week include a brand-new challenge for the refs.
To address the issues related to pace of play, the rules committee came up with the idea of using the stall warning as sort of a pseudo shot clock.
Under the old rules, when the refs decided that the team with the ball was making no effort to go to the goal in a reasonable amount of time, a stalling warning was issued. At that point, the team with the ball had to keep the ball in the box or else it would become a turnover.
The problem with that rule, though, was that it has become harder and harder for the defense to force the turnover in that situation, as offenses have gotten way better at playing keepaway (partly because of new stick technology) and defenses have had to choose between trying to aggressively force the offense out of the box while risking overplaying and giving up a layup or sitting back passively.
For TigerBlog, those situations could be fascinating, though the balance had certainly shifted from fascinating to happens-too-often.
To get around this, the rules committee came up with the new rule. Once a stalling warning is issued, the refs will immediately begin a 30-second countdown, the first 20 seconds of which will use a timer and then the final 10 seconds of which will use an arm countdown.
If the team with the ball does not get a shot on goal in those 30 seconds, it'll be a turnover. A shot on goal is defined as a goal, a shot off the pipe or a save by the goalie (the shot off the pipe doesn't count as a statistical shot on goal, by the way).
The rule change no longer requires the offensive team to keep the ball in the box during the 30 seconds after the stall warning is issued.
As for the last two minutes, the team ahead is no longer required to keep it in the box, but the rule about getting a shot on goal in the 30 seconds will apply once a stall is called. This could be a huge advantage to a team up by one who gets the ball with fewer than 45 seconds or so remaining, since it could probably just spread the field and kill the clock.
The idea is to prevent teams from simply sitting on the ball without instituting a shot clock, which could, among other things, provide a financial/staffing issue for schools.
The problem is that so much of the game will now be decided by the officials' discretion as to when to issue the stall warning. In the past, that was a problem too, and the defensive coaches are already yelling "stall" after the offensive team makes more than five passes.
Now, though, the timing of calling the stall has direct implications on what happens in the next 30 seconds, so when it's called becomes a much bigger deal.
And then there are the mechanics of the situation, with issues related to starting the 20-second timer, teams not knowing how much exact time is left on the countdown, what will happen when the ball goes out of bounds but the offense retains possession (the timer runs, the arm countdown stops).
Still, it's a good step in the direction of taking some of the problems related to the pace out of the game.
TB still thinks a bigger problem revolves around substituting, with offensive and defensive specialization.
And he thinks ultimately there will be a shot clock in college lacrosse.
For now, it'll be interesting to see how the refs respond to the new responsibilities placed on them.
In case you haven't noticed, people love to rip on the refs.
Remember those days? Every call was right. There was never any controversy about anything, whether it be a judgement call, the administration of the game, none of it.
Everyone lived in blissful happiness, knowing full well that no matter what, the game would never be decided by an officials' error, since they didn't make any.
TigerBlog gets the whole ref controversy. It's easy to blame the replacements.
And now everyone is looking for it on every play in every situation everywhere.
TB's theory is that if the real refs came back but nobody said they were the real refs, everyone would still say all the same things about them as if they were the replacements.
Take last night's game between the Packers and Seahawks. The last play of the game might not have been a great call or even the right call, but it was hardly the worst call of all time.
Offensive pass interference is never called in that situation. And Golden Tate had a lot of the ball and never let go of it, even if the Packers' M.D. Jennings had more of it.
Did that call give the Packers the loss? Hardly.
Maybe if Aaron Rodgers threw for more than 223 yards. Or, to all those offensive linemen who couldn't wait to tweet, maybe eight first-half sacks were part of the problem.
It's not possible for the replacement refs to come in and be exactly as good as the regular ones, simply because they don't have the experience of officiating games at that speed with players that size with that much scrutiny. It takes more than three weeks of regular season games to make that happen.
But are they as horrific as they're being made out to be? No, they're not.
The uproar over last night's game is predictable, and it does deflect attention away from the fact that in a 60-minute game, the powerful Green Bay offense rolled up 268 yards of offense while the defense forced exactly zero turnovers against a rookie quarterback in his third game.
Oh, and for the New England-Baltimore game, how would real refs have made anything different on the game-winning field goal, which, by the way, was 1) good and 2) not reviewable.
Officials are such an easy target.
The ones who officiate college men's lacrosse have endured a great deal of screaming and yelling and ranting and anything else coaches could come up with, and it's not going to get any easier for them this coming year.
The new rules in men's lacrosse that were recommended last month by the rules committee and then tweaked and finally formally adopted this week include a brand-new challenge for the refs.
To address the issues related to pace of play, the rules committee came up with the idea of using the stall warning as sort of a pseudo shot clock.
Under the old rules, when the refs decided that the team with the ball was making no effort to go to the goal in a reasonable amount of time, a stalling warning was issued. At that point, the team with the ball had to keep the ball in the box or else it would become a turnover.
The problem with that rule, though, was that it has become harder and harder for the defense to force the turnover in that situation, as offenses have gotten way better at playing keepaway (partly because of new stick technology) and defenses have had to choose between trying to aggressively force the offense out of the box while risking overplaying and giving up a layup or sitting back passively.
For TigerBlog, those situations could be fascinating, though the balance had certainly shifted from fascinating to happens-too-often.
To get around this, the rules committee came up with the new rule. Once a stalling warning is issued, the refs will immediately begin a 30-second countdown, the first 20 seconds of which will use a timer and then the final 10 seconds of which will use an arm countdown.
If the team with the ball does not get a shot on goal in those 30 seconds, it'll be a turnover. A shot on goal is defined as a goal, a shot off the pipe or a save by the goalie (the shot off the pipe doesn't count as a statistical shot on goal, by the way).
The rule change no longer requires the offensive team to keep the ball in the box during the 30 seconds after the stall warning is issued.
As for the last two minutes, the team ahead is no longer required to keep it in the box, but the rule about getting a shot on goal in the 30 seconds will apply once a stall is called. This could be a huge advantage to a team up by one who gets the ball with fewer than 45 seconds or so remaining, since it could probably just spread the field and kill the clock.
The idea is to prevent teams from simply sitting on the ball without instituting a shot clock, which could, among other things, provide a financial/staffing issue for schools.
The problem is that so much of the game will now be decided by the officials' discretion as to when to issue the stall warning. In the past, that was a problem too, and the defensive coaches are already yelling "stall" after the offensive team makes more than five passes.
Now, though, the timing of calling the stall has direct implications on what happens in the next 30 seconds, so when it's called becomes a much bigger deal.
And then there are the mechanics of the situation, with issues related to starting the 20-second timer, teams not knowing how much exact time is left on the countdown, what will happen when the ball goes out of bounds but the offense retains possession (the timer runs, the arm countdown stops).
Still, it's a good step in the direction of taking some of the problems related to the pace out of the game.
TB still thinks a bigger problem revolves around substituting, with offensive and defensive specialization.
And he thinks ultimately there will be a shot clock in college lacrosse.
For now, it'll be interesting to see how the refs respond to the new responsibilities placed on them.
In case you haven't noticed, people love to rip on the refs.
Monday, September 24, 2012
And The Emmy Goes To ... Homeland
Is there anyone anywhere who laughed at anything any of the presenters said during the Emmy Awards last night?
Anybody at all who thought any of that banter, which is so poorly written and then attempted to be portrayed as spontaneous, was actually funny?
Is this really the best that award shows can do? Supposedly the top writers and most "talented" performers are all working on this show; can't someone come up with something that isn't embarrassingly awkward?
Of course, there is little in the way of actual talent that separates the average TV or movie actor from the other 100,000 or more wannabe actors who don't get the break. TigerBlog has said this before a thousand times, that unlike endeavors like writing or even sports, acting isn't something where the most successful by definition are the most talented.
Still, someone should have been able to stand up and say "no, this isn't funny." As it turned out, the production for the Emmy Awards was pathetic, done in by the lack of anything remotely funny in the presentations and the widespread self-absorption of the winners and sometimes losers on the night.
TB watched the show because 1) nothing else on another channel was grabbing him, including the Patriots-Ravens game (TB thinks that field goal was probably good and wonders how it would have been any different had the regular refs had been on the field) and 2) because he wanted to see how his two favorite shows made out.
The first, "The Big Bang Theory," struck out, wiped out by "Modern Family." TB has heard that "Modern Family" is hilarious, but he's never seen it.
The second is "Homeland," a show TB hadn't heard of maybe three weeks ago, before he watched all 12 episodes in a four-day span in which he simply could not turn away from the riveting show.
TB's favorite dramas of all time are "Hill Street Blues" and "The Sopranos," shows he spent years and years watching, developing a feel for the characters and the different directions the plot went, all while seeing every episode many times each.
In the case of "Homeland," his entire experience with the show lasted half a week, and he hasn't rewatched any episode. And yet it was so well done, so well written, so well acted, with such perfect character development that TB can't help but put it in a class with any show he's ever seen on television.
Even the two major plot twists that could be seen as a contrived really came ended up working, and that's not an easy trick to pull off.
"Homeland" cleaned up with four awards, including Best Drama, a writing award and the two top acting awards. The best male actor in a drama went to Damian Lewis, whom TB didn't know was actually British, something not obvious from watching him in "Homeland" or when he was the top American officer in "Band of Brothers."
As for Claire Danes, her acting performance in the 12 episodes of Season 1 was so over the top perfect that there could have been no suspense that she would win. She made Carrie - the CIA agent who tracks returning POW Lewis - into a nearly flawless professional with a completely flawed personal life, and there was an inevitable crashing together of the two at the end that was simply riveting.
If you haven't seen the show, do it. Right now. Stop what you're doing and go watch it.
Princeton football had its own breakout star on national television this past weekend. Or at least that's what DiAndre Atwater looked like during Princeton's football game Friday night on ESPNU.
Atwater - the son of former NFL great Steve Atwater and the brother of one of the Georgetown players - ran for 92 yards on 15 carries and had around 80 yards receiving wiped out by penalties. Atwater also exploded 53 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately for Princeton, Atwater's TD didn't stand up as the game-winner, not after Georgetown drove the length of the field and kicked a field goal with 14 seconds left as the Tigers fell 21-20.
Through two games this year, Princeton is 0-2, having been outscored by a total of four points, in losses to two Patriot League teams.
A year ago, Princeton was 0-2, having been outscored by a total of 37 points, in losses to two Patriot League teams.
Princeton could have won either or both of its first two games, and TB can point to one play in each game that might have swung things. That's not really something that was true a year ago.
Those are intangible improvements, and teams can get some confidence from them. What would be an even greater source of confidence would be wins, being able to say "we're getting better and the record reflects it."
The next chance to do so is this Saturday, with a 12:30 kickoff at Columbia.
Princeton is 0-2 but 0-0 where it counts, in the Ivy League. In many ways, Weeks 1 and 2 are a test run for the league season, which starts at Columbia, takes a week off for the game at Lafayette and then concludes six more league games in six weeks after that.
Columbia is 1-1 on the year, with a win over Marist and a loss to Fordham. Just like the Tigers, Columbia would love to be 1-0 in the league.
It's way too early to push the panic button for Tiger football in 2012. There are some strong pieces in place, and the first two opponents were not easy.
This Saturday is a great opportunity.
Step 1 was to show that the team is competitive, and two losses by four points does that.
Step 2 is to turn a one-point loss into a win.
Step 3 is to see how winning becomes contagious.
Anybody at all who thought any of that banter, which is so poorly written and then attempted to be portrayed as spontaneous, was actually funny?
Is this really the best that award shows can do? Supposedly the top writers and most "talented" performers are all working on this show; can't someone come up with something that isn't embarrassingly awkward?
Of course, there is little in the way of actual talent that separates the average TV or movie actor from the other 100,000 or more wannabe actors who don't get the break. TigerBlog has said this before a thousand times, that unlike endeavors like writing or even sports, acting isn't something where the most successful by definition are the most talented.
Still, someone should have been able to stand up and say "no, this isn't funny." As it turned out, the production for the Emmy Awards was pathetic, done in by the lack of anything remotely funny in the presentations and the widespread self-absorption of the winners and sometimes losers on the night.
TB watched the show because 1) nothing else on another channel was grabbing him, including the Patriots-Ravens game (TB thinks that field goal was probably good and wonders how it would have been any different had the regular refs had been on the field) and 2) because he wanted to see how his two favorite shows made out.
The first, "The Big Bang Theory," struck out, wiped out by "Modern Family." TB has heard that "Modern Family" is hilarious, but he's never seen it.
The second is "Homeland," a show TB hadn't heard of maybe three weeks ago, before he watched all 12 episodes in a four-day span in which he simply could not turn away from the riveting show.
TB's favorite dramas of all time are "Hill Street Blues" and "The Sopranos," shows he spent years and years watching, developing a feel for the characters and the different directions the plot went, all while seeing every episode many times each.
In the case of "Homeland," his entire experience with the show lasted half a week, and he hasn't rewatched any episode. And yet it was so well done, so well written, so well acted, with such perfect character development that TB can't help but put it in a class with any show he's ever seen on television.
Even the two major plot twists that could be seen as a contrived really came ended up working, and that's not an easy trick to pull off.
"Homeland" cleaned up with four awards, including Best Drama, a writing award and the two top acting awards. The best male actor in a drama went to Damian Lewis, whom TB didn't know was actually British, something not obvious from watching him in "Homeland" or when he was the top American officer in "Band of Brothers."
As for Claire Danes, her acting performance in the 12 episodes of Season 1 was so over the top perfect that there could have been no suspense that she would win. She made Carrie - the CIA agent who tracks returning POW Lewis - into a nearly flawless professional with a completely flawed personal life, and there was an inevitable crashing together of the two at the end that was simply riveting.
If you haven't seen the show, do it. Right now. Stop what you're doing and go watch it.
Princeton football had its own breakout star on national television this past weekend. Or at least that's what DiAndre Atwater looked like during Princeton's football game Friday night on ESPNU.
Atwater - the son of former NFL great Steve Atwater and the brother of one of the Georgetown players - ran for 92 yards on 15 carries and had around 80 yards receiving wiped out by penalties. Atwater also exploded 53 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately for Princeton, Atwater's TD didn't stand up as the game-winner, not after Georgetown drove the length of the field and kicked a field goal with 14 seconds left as the Tigers fell 21-20.
Through two games this year, Princeton is 0-2, having been outscored by a total of four points, in losses to two Patriot League teams.
A year ago, Princeton was 0-2, having been outscored by a total of 37 points, in losses to two Patriot League teams.
Princeton could have won either or both of its first two games, and TB can point to one play in each game that might have swung things. That's not really something that was true a year ago.
Those are intangible improvements, and teams can get some confidence from them. What would be an even greater source of confidence would be wins, being able to say "we're getting better and the record reflects it."
The next chance to do so is this Saturday, with a 12:30 kickoff at Columbia.
Princeton is 0-2 but 0-0 where it counts, in the Ivy League. In many ways, Weeks 1 and 2 are a test run for the league season, which starts at Columbia, takes a week off for the game at Lafayette and then concludes six more league games in six weeks after that.
Columbia is 1-1 on the year, with a win over Marist and a loss to Fordham. Just like the Tigers, Columbia would love to be 1-0 in the league.
It's way too early to push the panic button for Tiger football in 2012. There are some strong pieces in place, and the first two opponents were not easy.
This Saturday is a great opportunity.
Step 1 was to show that the team is competitive, and two losses by four points does that.
Step 2 is to turn a one-point loss into a win.
Step 3 is to see how winning becomes contagious.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Fall Is Here ... Maybe
TigerBlog used to know what day was the first day of fall, winter, spring and summer.
Then, over time, all that faded away.
Is it the 20th? 21st? 22nd?
Actually, TB heard on the radio that fall starts tomorrow, which is the 22nd, at 10:46 am. He actually was surprised to hear that.
There's a part of "The Great Gatsby" where one of the characters is talking about how she always looks forward to the longest day of the year and then forgets about it when it actually happens. TB is pretty sure the scene is meant to show how devoid of any sort of depth that particular woman is.
The longest day of the year around here (actually, all days are the same length; she was referring to the day it stays lightest out the longest) has sunlight til after 9 pm. Sunset today is at 6:56.
TB loves discussions of what is somebody's favorite season. TB doesn't really have a favorite per se, as each season has its very strong points.
He does know that he loves this time of year, the late summer/early fall and on through Halloween and Thanksgiving, the two greatest holidays of them all.
Spring is supposed to be the time of rebirth and rejuvenation, after the long winter. TB sees it the other way.
TB's world goes something like this: Spring is for lacrosse, and June and July are for summer lacrosse. August and early September are for baking in 90-100 degree heat and humidity.
By the time mid-September rolls around, the weather starts to cool and the humidity starts to drop, and the result is this current two-week stretch of weather that has featured one rainy day and 13 of the most perfect weather days of all time.
That's as rejuvenating as going from the cold winter into the rising temperatures of spring, at least to TigerBlog.
The beneficiaries of this weather are the people who are planning to come to Princeton tonight.
The Princeton Invitational men's soccer event begins this evening, as Penn takes on FDU (5:00) and Princeton then hosts Rider (7:30). It'll be Penn-Rider (noon) and Princeton-FDU Sunday (2:30).
Admission is free.
Men's soccer coach Jim Barlow was here earlier this morning, and TB pointed out that if the game tonight comes down to which coach is better at imitating people, then Princeton has no chance. Rider coach Charlie Inverso - who had a great three-decade career at Mercer County Community College - is as good an impersonator as TB has ever heard, maybe short of Rich Little and Andrew Dice Clay.
Unfortunately, the football game was moved to Friday night for ESPNU, which means it goes on at the same time as the men's soccer event, something TB never likes to see here.
Princeton hosts Georgetown at 7 in the first meeting between the schools since 1925.
The Tigers are 0-1 after a close 17-14 loss to Lehigh last week. Georgetown is 2-1, its loss a 24-21 decision to Yale last Saturday as well.
Princeton is looking for improvement from Week 1 to Week 2, but more than that, the Tigers are looking for a win. Beating Georgetown would be a big step for many reasons, including:
* showing measurable improvement
* evening the record
* having a win to build on heading into the league season
* getting a win over a quality opponent
TB is interested in what happens on the field obviously. He was also interested in what the weather would be.
Last year's home football schedule was five games. It rained for three and snowed for one.
Tonight will be perfect weather, temperature in the mid-60s at kickoff.
After last year, that's already a win.
Then, over time, all that faded away.
Is it the 20th? 21st? 22nd?
Actually, TB heard on the radio that fall starts tomorrow, which is the 22nd, at 10:46 am. He actually was surprised to hear that.
There's a part of "The Great Gatsby" where one of the characters is talking about how she always looks forward to the longest day of the year and then forgets about it when it actually happens. TB is pretty sure the scene is meant to show how devoid of any sort of depth that particular woman is.
The longest day of the year around here (actually, all days are the same length; she was referring to the day it stays lightest out the longest) has sunlight til after 9 pm. Sunset today is at 6:56.
TB loves discussions of what is somebody's favorite season. TB doesn't really have a favorite per se, as each season has its very strong points.
He does know that he loves this time of year, the late summer/early fall and on through Halloween and Thanksgiving, the two greatest holidays of them all.
Spring is supposed to be the time of rebirth and rejuvenation, after the long winter. TB sees it the other way.
TB's world goes something like this: Spring is for lacrosse, and June and July are for summer lacrosse. August and early September are for baking in 90-100 degree heat and humidity.
By the time mid-September rolls around, the weather starts to cool and the humidity starts to drop, and the result is this current two-week stretch of weather that has featured one rainy day and 13 of the most perfect weather days of all time.
That's as rejuvenating as going from the cold winter into the rising temperatures of spring, at least to TigerBlog.
The beneficiaries of this weather are the people who are planning to come to Princeton tonight.
The Princeton Invitational men's soccer event begins this evening, as Penn takes on FDU (5:00) and Princeton then hosts Rider (7:30). It'll be Penn-Rider (noon) and Princeton-FDU Sunday (2:30).
Admission is free.
Men's soccer coach Jim Barlow was here earlier this morning, and TB pointed out that if the game tonight comes down to which coach is better at imitating people, then Princeton has no chance. Rider coach Charlie Inverso - who had a great three-decade career at Mercer County Community College - is as good an impersonator as TB has ever heard, maybe short of Rich Little and Andrew Dice Clay.
Unfortunately, the football game was moved to Friday night for ESPNU, which means it goes on at the same time as the men's soccer event, something TB never likes to see here.
Princeton hosts Georgetown at 7 in the first meeting between the schools since 1925.
The Tigers are 0-1 after a close 17-14 loss to Lehigh last week. Georgetown is 2-1, its loss a 24-21 decision to Yale last Saturday as well.
Princeton is looking for improvement from Week 1 to Week 2, but more than that, the Tigers are looking for a win. Beating Georgetown would be a big step for many reasons, including:
* showing measurable improvement
* evening the record
* having a win to build on heading into the league season
* getting a win over a quality opponent
TB is interested in what happens on the field obviously. He was also interested in what the weather would be.
Last year's home football schedule was five games. It rained for three and snowed for one.
Tonight will be perfect weather, temperature in the mid-60s at kickoff.
After last year, that's already a win.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
